


Growing Up Hunter

by Queen_Kit



Series: Twinnish: Maul Edition [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, GFY, Gen, Mentions of Obi-Wan Kenobi - Freeform, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 14:11:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6960265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_Kit/pseuds/Queen_Kit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of events from the life of Jinn-Kai growing up within the Genetic Hunter organization.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing Up Hunter

**Author's Note:**

> Obi-Wan is referenced in this fic although only in terms of "her brother" because at the time of the Fic Jinn-Kai does not know what his name is.  
> I'm not certain that this fic actually needs a Mature rating, but I've decided to take the more cautious route just in case.

Jinn-Kai is four years old the first time one of the Masters raises their hand against her.  It is a minor offence, a lapse of attention in her lessons.  She’s bored.  She already knows the material despite being moved to a more advanced class.  Her brother learned this history ages ago and she had sat through it then fascinated, now it’s old news.  Master Ha’anna doesn’t have a chance of keeping her attention.

She’s idly doodling on her paad when the master’s blunted sword snaps down across her hands.  Then he lashes out again, knocking her to the floor.

Then she’s scrambling, trying to get away, trying to grab anything to defend herself with.  It is her first glimpse of the sort of discipline she will receive once she’s moved to the elder children’s lessons and dorms entirely.

The attack doesn’t end until she’s lying on the floor unable to move. Her body seems more bruise than anything else.  She’s crying and she can’t stop it.

She is unable to return to lessons for a week.  She’ll never let down her guard like that again.

-

She is five years old and there is a fire building within her.  She’s standing in front of the teaching master as they lecture her for not completing the lessons by their instructions.  Their instructions were _faulty_ she could do it a better way.

She can’t say that.  She just stays there standing and glaring and feeling the anger build inside her.  The transparisteel in the window next to her is rippling.

A hand comes forward landing a solid slap.

The window-pane shatters, blasting shards of transparisteel in every direction.

She doesn’t wake up for two days, she never sees that teaching master again.

Every time the fire is building they send her to her sword studies.  She must not be angry, she must be focused.  Smother the anger.

Her hands bleed, rubbed raw by the material that wraps the sword’s hilt. She is not allowed to leave until she collapses on the floor.

-

She is six years old and her sword work is more polished than some students twice her age.  At least that is how it is when she practices alone.  Against an opponent, that is an entirely different animal.  She stumbles, unable to keep up with the force behind her opponent’s blows.

She has never been taught how to counter and defend for real.  They have thrown her out against a child nearly twice her size just to see what she can do before they’ll bother with that.

There are other students on the sidelines laughing as she is struck, jeering as she bleeds.

It is the second time she misses lessons to heal.

-

She is seven years old and she’s sitting in an empty room with her eyes closed.  She has been given a file to read, a profile of a target to find.  She’s meant to use that evidence to determine where the target will be.  It’s one of many aptitude tests that she is being given.

She thinks and she listens to the flow of the world around her as she’s learned from her brother.

When she opens her eyes she knows where they’ll be.

She slips into the vents above the room without setting off any of the alarms, crawling to the location.

She taps a message into the comm on her wrist.

‘I see you.’

As she drops out of the vent in front of the test master she thinks she has never seen one look so proud.

-

She is eight years old and she’s being given a practical evaluation.  Practical evaluations are typically saved for apprenticed hunters, but she is a special case.  She has proven to have an uncanny knack for finding people in the last year.  The target for this practical has proven nearly impossible to be found.

Given her age, they were not allowed to take her off planet with them, but she has a direct comm to the operation and topographical maps in front of her.  She’s coordinating with an apprentice on the ground, directing them where they need to go.

She grins, targeting in on one particular dwelling.  She directs them inside.

Fifteen minutes later they have their target and she knows her future is secure.

-

She is nine years old when she notices some of the other hunters giving her _the look_.  She doesn’t know what the look means.  It is evaluating in a way that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with her lessons.  It is uncomfortable.

She thought she was done being afraid for herself when she secured her place in line to become an apprentice seeker.  She realizes she is wrong when she can feel the eyes and hear the whispers.  She has gone too far past useful and she has become _noticed_.

Once you are noticed nothing of your life is ever your own.  She learns that the Elder Masters are already looking for a suitable match for her.

-

She is ten years old and she’s gotten used to the people watching her.  She’s running through a practice drill with her swords in the middle of the training room.  She’s using some new moves that she’s learned in dreams from her brother.

It takes a little time to work out the kinks.  His body and hers aren’t exactly the same.  She closes her eyes, focusing on the memory.  She remembers how the muscles felt, how the position felt.  She can feel her brother following with her as she tries.  She can sense approval.

And then the moment is broken by a hand on her shoulder.  It’s time to move on to other lessons.

They teach her how she can use her coming womanhood to her advantage.  She will lure and distract.

She doesn’t understand it.  She doesn’t want to learn it. She doesn’t have a choice.

-

She is eleven years old and _the look_ is becoming far more common.  She’s just starting to show signs of what changes time will work on her body.  Her first period is a cause for panic. Sex is not an uncommon occurrence among hunters, consensual and not.

She’s been lucky so far.  It’s perhaps the only good thing that has come of being _noticed_.  She has protections that don’t exist for many of the others.  Anyone who would dare to touch her without the Elder’s consent would have been executed.

But if she is old enough for this, she might be old enough that they will be pairing her with someone.  She tries to hide it, but they find out anyway.

She’s called to an office. They’re very kind about it, or at least she thinks they’re trying to be.  They set her up on the same contraceptives they give the other women.  They tell her that they intend to wait a few more years before they start her courtship.

She still doesn’t feel safe. She stops going anywhere without a knife.

-

She is twelve years old and she finds out that the Elders have already set their sights on a potential match for her.  His name is Devrai.  She doesn’t know very much about him.  She hacks into his files that night and learns everything that she can about him.

Devrai is fifteen years old. He is an apprentice on track for retrieval with strong fighting skills.  He failed most of his classes in seeking, but his skills in retrieval saw him passing anyway.   He was already on an advance track, just as she was.  His best friend and working partner was a pilot.

There was a picture as well.  Tall and skinny, blond hair, grey eyes.

Someone told her that she would be lucky to have him because he was “hot”.  Honestly she isn’t sure what the big deal was.  He’s just another boy.

-

She is thirteen years old and she has just been apprenticed after the worst day of her life.  The hollow feeling in her heart isn’t helped by meeting the boy who will be her working partner once she has a few months of her actual apprenticeship under her belt.

Devrai gives her _the look_ , leering with an intensity that goes beyond what she’s known before.  As soon as they are alone he decides to take liberties with her personal space that she isn’t comfortable with.

She puts a knife through his hand for his trouble.  He turns her right over to the masters for discipline. It doesn’t matter why she did it, he needs his hands.

Master Denn Ayle seems to take a perverse pleasure in bringing his whip to bear, making her bleed.  She is wrapped in bandages and sent on her way before she’s had a chance to heal.

-

She is fourteen years old and for the first time everything seems like it could get better.

Devrai is dead.  She will never have to deal with him again.  She will not belong to him for the rest of her life.  She has a chance to get out.  She hadn’t realized how bad it was until she could finally breathe.

Of course that isn’t the end of things.  She spends a few glorious days free and learning to use the fire that has been within her for so long, and then she has to go back.

While she was away Master Denn Ayle found out that she stole his cortosis swords for the mission.  She hadn’t planned on taking them, but the force had directed her to them.  The only thing she can be glad for is that she hid them away as soon as she got back.  He won’t get them back.

They felt right in her hands and she _needs_ them.

The lashing lasts longer than any has before.  She isn’t able to leave for weeks and even when she does, she is not fully healed.

Maul is furious.  He heals her injuries, which hurts nearly as much as getting injured, and then he teachers her new ways to fight.

-

The last time Jinn-Kai sees the place she grew up, she is fourteen years and two months old.  She walks up to Denn Ayle in the middle of the night and challenges the master for ownership of the swords.  For the first time she leaves the fight standing strong while the master is on the floor bleeding.

From then on her missions come over the comm and she treks out farther into the galaxy, seeking out targets as she waits for the day when she can leave the Hunters behind her forever.


End file.
